Marvel’s Jessica Jones

The Netflix series has an appeal for insomniacs, says Matt Brennan. "If sleeplessness is as deep in your sinews as it is in mine, in fact, Jessica Jones might be comfortingly familiar," he says. "Its near-silences and fugue states are those of the sheep-counter and the infomercial-watcher, the last-call loner and the midnight flâneur, the obsessive, the worrywart, the livewire, the night owl. The series comes to resemble the Season One meetings held by survivors of its supervillain’s mind control: It’s an insomniac support group, attuned to the frustrations and consolations of being awake. For most TV characters—for most people—a sleepless night is tantamount to torture. For Jessica Jones, though—for nighthawks like me—it can also be seductive." ALSO: What Jessica Jones understands about female rage.

Melissa Rosenberg says of Season 2: "It was really designed differently from season 1, like a 13-hour movie, you know? Every piece builds on the other, and it gains momentum. It’s not a repeat of season 1. The characters are definitely coming off of season 1 but it’s its own animal, and I hope every season will be its own animal."

"If the premise of a TV show is that a detective searches for justice, it follows that the detective will be almost unbearably sad," says Kathryn VanArendonk. "Her ability to do her job will occasionally be hindered by her alcoholism, or her post-traumatic stress, or her grief. A scene depicting professional competence will come hand in hand with a scene where the detective walks into his sad lonely apartment and eats out of a can while hunched on a mattress sitting on the floor. Searches for social justice are fueled by the need for personal vengeance. It’s so common, it’s now difficult to even imagine a happy detective."

Jessica Jones is able to tap into the #MeToo and Time's Up zeitgeist in a way that even a female empowerment movie like Wonder Woman couldn't, says Ira Madison III. "The season wrapped shooting well before #MeToo had its moment, yet it fits within the ethos that helped create #MeToo," he says. "After the relative bliss of the Obama era and the idea that Hillary Clinton was on the horizon, a story like Jessica Jones may have resonated with only some part of the audience. But now, over a year later, women are fed up, angry, and well, over it. Jessica Jones feels like the culmination of that moment condensed into one television season." Jessica Jones creator Melissa Rosenberg hired only female directors for Season 2, and says of the timing: "This season, for me, is very personal. Borrowing from my own life or from the writers’ lives, it was really just coming from that. It wasn’t in any way trying to make any kind of statement."

Like McDonald's, MTV is flipping over its "M" to a "W" to celebrate women on this international holiday, while Freeform will carry a #NotSorry "meter" to count every time it bleeps a woman saying "sorry" throughout the day. CMT will celebrate with its first-ever "female music takeover," and Hulu is highlighting female-centric content on its homepage. Netflix, meanwhile, dropped Season 2 of Jessica Jones this morning in honor of International Women's Day, and after it midnight it will unveil David Letterman's interview with women's rights activist Malala Yousafzai on his talk show My Next Guest Needs No Introduction.

Ritter, the author of the new thriller Bonfire, says when asked about her reading habits: “I get to be fully immersed all day every day and it is crazy exciting! But it’s not a reading environment. On set, if anything, I’ll knit because it’s mechanical, a meditation and doesn’t pull focus from the work. In terms of how I read, I am hard copy all the way.”